back	September 17, 2008 RSS

Architecture for Humanity

When survivors of a natural disaster quickly need a roof over their heads, there's a small San Francisco-based organisation that is often on hand to help out. Architecture for Humanity (AFH) was set up by Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr, who wanted to promote humanitarian and aesthetic architecture in crisis-stricken areas. To this end, Sinclair brought together an international team of architects, designers and technicians who work in small teams with the local communities on reconstruction. AFH runs most of its projects as design competitions, e.g. for a football pitch and a health education clinic in Siyathemba, South Africa. The community chose the winner - architect Swee Hong Ng - who travelled there to collaborate with the young girls who would be using the field for their soccer league. In Mississippi, one of the AFH-run projects is the Biloxi Model Home Program for affordable, hurricane-resistant family homes. The designs can be accessed online at the Open Architecture Network (OAN) and are available free of charge to needy communities - a revolution in architecture. Get the full story by Sarah Rich in the San Francisco edition of MINIInternational